VT House passes budget, tax bills; rejects pay cut

Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, explains a section of the budget bill at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Thursday.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

MONTPELIER – The Vermont House on Friday passed a nearly $1.5 billion general fund budget that would put part of any extra money at the end of the fiscal year into low-income heating aid. It also raised $33.2 million in new revenue and rejected a legislative pay cut.

The $1.475 billion budget and tax packages now go to the Senate.

The general fund budget pays for by far the largest number of state programs, but is just part of overall spending that is expected to total about $5.5 billion. The larger figure includes the separate transportation and education funds and federal money passed through the Medicaid health insurance program.

With expected reductions in federal funding and rising health care expenditures, lawmakers struggled to contain state spending. The House process ended with the anomaly that general fund spending will be up about $68 million, or 4.8 percent, even as a number of programs are absorbing cuts.

One of the least popular was a cut of the $6 million state supplement to a federal program that provides home heating aid to low-income residents. The House ended up supporting an amendment to add $5 million back into the program if there's enough money left over at the end of the current fiscal year June 30.

One of the bigger fights of the day was over an ultimately unsuccessful amendment by Rep. Job Tate, a freshman Republican from Mendon, to cut legislative pay by 7.5 percent. Lawmakers currently get $676.56 for the weeks they're in session, usually from January to early or mid-May.

He and other supporters said that if lawmakers were asking other Vermonters to take cuts, they should do so, too.

Democrats argued that with lower pay, average Vermonters could not afford to serve.

"We have to make sure that people can afford to be part of the citizen Legislature," said Rep. Catherine "Kitty" Toll, D-Danville. With her legislative work outside the paid session, Toll said, "I'm not making the minimum wage." Any lawmaker could request to give up some or all of the salary; "to make a political statement on this on the floor is unfair," she added.

Budget and tax writers set out with the goal of closing a $113 million gap between projected spending and revenues for fiscal 2016, which starts July 1. The House did so mainly with the $35 million in higher taxes and fees and $53 million in cuts from projected expenditures. In one, they subtracted $2 million from what would have been set aside to cover caseload growth in services to the developmentally disabled.

Some cuts were designed to let people down a bit more easily: 911 answering stations were reduced from funding for four to two, but not until September, amid hopes towns would step forward to keep them running by then. The state prison in Windsor had been slated for closing, but that was put off until 2017.

The tax increases will come from reducing deductions: A previous year's state and local taxes will no longer be deductible from income subject to the state income tax, and itemized deductions will be capped at $15,500 for an individual and $31,000 for a couple.